Friday, April 03, 2009
End of March snowstorms put spring on hold in Red River valley
While snowcover was pretty much gone in Winnipeg and the Red River valley by this time last year, it's a much different story this year. Two snowstorms in the last week of March deposited 30-40 cm of snow on Winnipeg and area, giving us early April snowdepths similar to midwinter. Cloud cover and below normal temperatures are delaying a quick melt of the snowcover, which is good news for the flood situation, but depressing for winter weary residents looking for spring. While snowcover in Winnipeg is usually gone by late March or early April, the weather pattern this year will likely prolong our snowcover well into the second or possibly third week of April. This is similar to Aprils of 1997, 1996 and 1979 which saw heavy April snowcover linger into the third or last weeks of the month. (see snowdepth statistics for Winnipeg airport) Hopefully, we can get into a trend of drier and milder weather by next week that will get rid of the snow by mid month, with reduced impacts on the flooding situation.
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Note that although last April was better for us in Winnipeg, we just missed 3 major April snowstorms that tracked through South Dakota into northern Minnesota giving those areas their snowiest April on record. So not everyone has better memories of April 2008!
ReplyDeleteSo far we've only missed two of those SD snow events in the last 14 days. I assume were missing the current one??
ReplyDeleteGotta love those Hydromet people and their good news/bad news msgs such as .
ReplyDeleteThe RRV MB crests will be lower but ice will produce unpredictable and nasty results and,
We will have 5 days of cool dry but the floodway gate may not work.
Makes one really look forward to golf season when weather conditions dont matter lol.
The models are showing a major warm-up starting early next week. If EC's forecast is right, and we do get to +4 to +8 by Wednesday, most of our snow could be gone within 10 days. The models are also showing +14 to +18 temperatures 10 days from now!
ReplyDeleteNWS is predicting flood crests for late APRIL 2 to 5 feet higher than the current crests equaling and in some cases (Northern Basin) exceeding 1997. Higher If any more pcpn before then Link on my name
ReplyDeleteNext week will be a battle between the strong April sun and our unwelcome snowpack. Snow level at XWG went from 14 cm on Wednesday to just 8 yesterday. Prior to the last storm, striations of bare ground were already visible SW of Winnipeg.
ReplyDeleteWe are getting a fair amount of surface heating even with all the white stuff... surface temps run about 8-10 C warmer than at 850 hPa each afternooon.
SCRIBE once again acting funny, giving us -6 C for Sunday. 850 hPa cold advection does occur as that 3rd Colorado low moves across the central plains. However, it does not appear strong enough to keep us from reaching -3 C or so.
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